Every big Collin County hail date brings the same knock on the door: a contractor who will handle the insurance claim and make the deductible disappear. In Texas, that offer has been illegal since 2019. The law is worth five minutes of a Frisco homeowner's attention, because it quietly does you two favors: it protects your policy, and it labels the contractors willing to break it.
What the law actually says
Texas House Bill 2102, in force since September 2019, makes it a crime for a contractor to pay, waive, absorb, rebate, or otherwise offset a policyholder's insurance deductible, and it obligates the homeowner to pay it. Insurers can also require reasonable proof the deductible was paid before releasing certain claim funds.
The mechanics before 2019 were an open secret: a roofer would quote the insurer a price inflated by roughly the deductible amount, then tell the homeowner the deductible was taken care of. That is insurance fraud with extra steps, and the homeowner, who signed the claim paperwork, was standing closest to it.
Why the offer was never a favor
A waived deductible has to come from somewhere, and it comes out of the roof: a thinner underlayment, reused flashing, a rushed crew, or an invoice that quietly misrepresents the work to your insurer with your name attached. You traded a known four-figure cost for an unknown one, plus legal exposure.
The law converts that hidden trade into a clean signal. A contractor who offers to eat your deductible in 2026 is telling you, in plain language, how they handle rules generally. It is the cheapest character reference you will ever collect.
How a clean claim actually runs in Frisco
The legitimate path after a storm date is boring and effective:
- Get the roof independently documented: strike counts and photos, slope by slope
- Read your policy for its deadline; Texas policies set their own claim windows from the date of loss, and they run shorter than people assume
- File with the evidence attached, and have your roofer walk the adjuster meeting so both inspections see the same roof
- Pay the deductible, on the record, and keep the receipt with the claim file
- Expect the work itself to be itemized, permitted where the city requires it, and documented at closeout
Where the record comes from
The evidence step is the one you control entirely. A documented storm read after any serious ledger date establishes what the storm did while the trail is fresh, and it costs nothing. If the damage is minor, you get a dated baseline instead of a claim, which is its own kind of win.
Still have questions about how the law touches your situation? Your insurance agent handles the policy side; for the roof side, reach out and get the evidence first.
Deductible-law answers.
The short versions, for after the storm.